Meltdown

I'm reading a book at the moment called "Too Big to Fail" which (like so many others) has been sat on my shelves for quite some time. However, this one was borrowed from my boss earlier this year, and he keeps asking me if I've read it yet, so I thought that I ought to crack on with it so that I can return it.

It is all about the meltdown of the global financial system that took place in 2008, focusing in particular on Lehman and AIG. It can be quite hard to follow at times due to the huge cast of characters involved, and is essentially 500 pages of a monumentally bad, slow-motion pile up.

Today I was in London for a couple of meetings. The first one of which was at an investment firm - nothing to do with the firm itself, but rather a small pension scheme that it has for some of its employees. I was done there with some time to spare before my second meeting, which was at a hotel near St Paul's. Wandering along the road nearby, it was entertaining to think that I was walking past the London offices of some of the organisations that feature prominently in the book. I sat in a coffee shop overlooking the cathedral and read a few more chapters.

By the way, the cathedral itself is looking rather splendid. The external cleanup operation appears to be complete, and most of the stonework is now white again rather than a dark city grime-based colour.

My second meeting of the day was definitely interesting, and who knows where it might lead ...